What is Baptism?
Baptism represents a decisive break from our former life.
Going under the water reenacts the reality of dying to an old way of life with Jesus.
Being brought up out of the water represents resurrecting to a new way of life through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Baptism is a public occasion. A person is baptized into Christ and into the church.
It is a family affair.
An event to to be celebrated together.
An opportunity to pray for and bless the person taking a step of faith in response to Jesus’ call to be baptized.
“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Baptism not only reenacts the story of the Gospel, it also proclaims the good news of Jesus. Baptism is sacramental in that it was ordained by Jesus and acts as a visible picture of an invisible reality — it is a symbol, a signifier, a window into the objective fact that God has cleansed us of our sins in Christ Jesus
“And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’”
For this reason,
baptism is never about how good we are,
how religious we are,
how moral and put-together we are — it is always about how gracious God is to us in Jesus.
Baptism doesn’t save us.
Jesus saves us.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
But baptism signifies the saving work of Jesus.
Through baptism, we are all reminded that God cleanses us from our sins.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Baptism is for every follower of Jesus, or for anyone who wants to become a follower of Jesus. Jesus was baptized
“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),”
and, as followers of Jesus, we are baptized
“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
We don’t need to have everything figured out.
We might not have our life all together.
We may even fall flat on our faces the day after our baptism — stumbling far short of who God calls us to be.
None of that is prohibitive.
Baptism is for the broken, the hurting, the hard-done-by, the foolish and failing, the sinner longing to be a saint, and the saint confessing they are a sinner — it is for all whom our God calls to Himself through grace, by faith.
Interested in getting baptized at The Way Church? Learn more here.
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